Gilroy 425g Build Thread (All Apex, all the time)

Terence · Sep 20, 2015

jl283467 said:
Any more info on the sea sweeps? Sounds interesting

More info at a later date. Hopefully it comes to market the way I hope. Then I will have them in my tank for sure. Stay tuned.

jl283467 · Sep 20, 2015

Terence said:
More info at a later date. Hopefully it comes to market the way I hope. Then I will have them in my tank for sure. Stay tuned.

Okay I will have to wait and see I assume that it moves the power head side to side which is awesome I have seen several diy versions of these using sprinkler heads. Btw awesome build

nick12881 · Sep 20, 2015

Thanks Terence. Didn't mean to try and derail the thread. I appreciate the response though.

dbl · Sep 20, 2015

Very impressive Terence. You mentioned this build in May while you were in Florida (SWFMAS). You were really excited about it and now I can see why. Glad to see the wonderful progress. Subscribed to keep track.

Terence · Sep 20, 2015

dbl said:
Very impressive Terence. You mentioned this build in May while you were in Florida (SWFMAS). You were really excited about it and now I can see why. Glad to see the wonderful progress. Subscribed to keep track.

Progress is happening. Slow and steady when I find time. Getting impatient for moving water though.

nick12881 said:
Thanks Terence. Didn't mean to try and derail the thread. I appreciate the response though.

No worries. I just wanted to make sure you knew about our forum and the collective of Control Freaks there that knows far more than I do.

Fin · Sep 20, 2015

Awesome set up! Looking forward to following your progress. I sure hope you don't have to move anytime soon.

Terence · Sep 20, 2015

Fin said:
Awesome set up! Looking forward to following your progress. I sure hope you don't have to move anytime soon.

Thanks! Me too!

Brad Syphus · Sep 20, 2015

You need to stay home for more than a couple of weeks and get this system rolling. If you weren't so popular , you might be able to. See you in a few days. LOL

TreyC2010 · Sep 20, 2015

Sea Sweeps are amazing. Putting two in my new tank. Awesome way to get flow everywhere

Terence · Sep 20, 2015

Brad Syphus said:
You need to stay home for more than a couple of weeks and get this system rolling. If you weren't so popular , you might be able to. See you in a few days. LOL

Well I get one weekend between Utah and RAP so hopefully I can do the next two steps that weekend and start flowing water the weekend after RAP.

Reef_Hobbyist · Sep 23, 2015

Terence said:
Nick,

Two different devices. Two different types of use. The WAV and DOS are their own independent AquaBus devices with their own independent power sources. Both can be set to have a "fallback" state. That is, the mode they run in when they lose communication from the base unit. Now, with the WAV it is easy, you may just want them to go to 50% power on loss of communication. For the DOS, since it might be putting stuff into the tank - and maybe based on other feedback (like pH or a switch), you might set that one to fallback OFF.

Definitely when you have a lot of your tank controlled by an Apex it is a good idea to have a back up Apex "brain". If you do have a backup, it will take a call to support for you to make the switchover to keep all your programming. Since it is not financially feasible for everyone to have a spare, I often recommend the local club have one or two on hand just for this purpose - so the person can have their tank running fine until they get their Apex replaced or back from the factory.

This is a good question, and I don't mind answering it here, but I would encourage you go to the http://forum.neptunesystems.com for more input and advice from others on this matter as well.

Hi Terence, having trouble finding more details about Apex backup options on the Neptune forum. I assume you mean having a second Apex but if you could direct me to a thread or elaborate here I would appreciate that. I am very interested in protecting my investment!!!

RussM · Sep 23, 2015

Reef_Hobbyist said:
Hi Terence, having trouble finding more details about Apex backup options on the Neptune forum. I assume you mean having a second Apex but if you could direct me to a thread or elaborate here I would appreciate that. I am very interested in protecting my investment!!!

I'll be happy to answer your questions, but being mindful that this is Terence's personal tank build thread, let's take it to a new thread in the Aquarium Controllers forum here, or better yet, on the Neptune Systems Community Forum, where I hang out much more than here.

Terence · Oct 4, 2015

A little more progress this weekend. Not as much as I would have liked, but progress. I finally got some brackets on the wall to help support the future canopy so I could now push the tank back. I also did the last segment of plumbing for the drains. Still have to get a 2" -> double 1" True Wye for the returns. Have to go mail order for that. Also have to put the last segment of pipe on the emergency drain as well.

I was hoping to install these jack posts and a beam under the floor this weekend. Unfortunately when one of the jack-posts arrived via UPS on Friday, the box was damaged and the top plate was missing

The other one arrived on Saturday from FedEx and it had all the pieces. I have no idea why amazon.com shipped them separately using two different shippers. Maybe they had them in different warehouses. Oh well. We will see what they end up doing.

Hopefully everything will be good to go on the tank plumbing such that I will not have to slide it back out - crossing fingers.

jl283467 · Oct 18, 2015

anything new done to the tank this week?

Terence · Oct 18, 2015

Last week was Reefapalooza in SoCal so there was that and the weekend before I did not have not jack posts due to the UPS debacle.

Picked up the cross beam yesterday for the support under the house. I now have both jack posts too. Hopefully I will have time and energy to put that in today.

Once I do that, there are just a couple of short pieces of PVC left and then I can fire up the pump and start moving water for a leak check.

jl283467 · Oct 18, 2015

Very cool

Terence · Oct 23, 2015

Well Russ came over last night and helped me raise the 4x6x10 foot beam and secure it to the joists. Now this weekend I just need make a level spot for the foundations and then place the two jack posts. After that its just a little bit of plumbing at the tank for the return and emergency line final three feet and we will be ready to flow some water in this beast!